Unfair Comparison Of Hartford Schools

September 19, 2013|Letter to the editor

The Courant's Sept. 13 article "State Data Show Performance Gap" that compares the performance of students in Hartford's neighborhood schools with Hartford students in regional magnet schools makes an unfair comparison.

Students in the magnet schools have higher performance results because those who apply for admission are in general the best-performing students. That happens because the families of poorer-performing students do not have the wherewithal to complete the application process.

Also, by removing the higher-performing students, you are left with a poorer-performing group overall in the neighborhood schools. And magnet students who perform poorly are more likely to return to their neighborhood schools due to falling behind, or behavioral or attendance problems.

Based on 13 years of volunteer tutoring in a Hartford neighborhood school, I believe that those schools do an outstanding job considering the many extra burdens their students carry. I have witnessed many of those burdens: broken homes; single and/or non-English-speaking parents, who struggle to get by; behavioral problems; absences due to family problems; students starting school behind developmentally.

I applaud the efforts of the dedicated teachers in the Hartford neighborhood schools. I have seen how hard they work.